A value proposition is the sentence that decides whether someone reads on or leaves. It is not a slogan and it is not your mission. It is the plain answer to “what is this, and why should I care?”
Make three things obvious
- Who it is for. The specific person, not “everyone.”
- The outcome they get. The result, not the feature list.
- Why you. What you can say that the alternatives cannot.
If a stranger cannot repeat back who it is for and what they get after one read, it is not done yet.
Specific beats grand
“We help businesses reach their potential” says nothing, because it could belong to anyone. “Bookkeeping that reconciles your accounts while you sleep, for sole traders who hate admin” could only be one company. Cut any line that a competitor could paste onto their own site unchanged.
Taglines should say something true
A tagline is not a value proposition, it is the memorable compression of it. The best ones are short, ownable, and true to what you actually do. Avoid the empty ones (“Think different” only works when you are Apple). Write several and pick the one that only fits you.
Example
Common mistakes
- Writing a mission statement instead of a value proposition.
- Describing features instead of the outcome the buyer gets.
- Lines so generic a competitor could use them word for word.